Matthew Bary Jr.
Kentucky Post, Monday, 19 October 1903, page 5
CHILDREN MANGLED
"This is terrible, terrible. The child's parents will never
recognize the body." said Matthew Bary of Bellevue Saturday evening as he gazed
in horror at a shapeless mass of human flesh, little dreaming at the time that
he was looking at all that was left on earth of his 12 year old son. The C & O F
V had shortly before struck and instantly killed Matthew Bary Jr. and Edward
Hummell, at Seventh and Walnut Streets, in Dayton.
About 5:30 Saturday afternoon Matthew Bary, Edward Hummel, Oscar Flinger, Rodney Payne, George Stegmeyer and John Frey started to the country south of Dayton to gather beechnuts. At Seventh and Walnut Streets they attempted to cross the C&O RR tracks, but were headed off by an East bound freight train. The boys stopped between the tracks to wait until the freight train had passed. Just then engine No 86, in charge of Engineer William Fairhead and Fireman Frank Beglow, pulling the west bound F F V express, dashed in sight. The boys realizing that they were about to be caught between two trains attempted to escape.
Barry and Hummel tried to jump across the track. The express engine struck the unfortunate boys and hurled them high into the air. They fell squarely in the tracks and were literally ground to pieces beneath the wheels of the heavy train. Portions of the body of each were scattered around the track for over 100 feet. The other boys saved themselves by lying down on the ground between the tracks. The accident attracted a big crowd of spectators, one of them being Matthew Bary of O'Fallon Avenue. It was at this time that he made the remark that the parents of the boys could never recognize them. Bary went home and told the neighbors about the terrible accident.
Some time afterward a friend told Bary that a jewsharp, which belonged to his son, had been found in the pocket of the coat of one of the mangled bodies. Bary hurried to Betz's undertaking establishment where the bodies had been taken, where he identified his son by means of the clothing. Mrs. Bary was visiting at the time and knew nothing of the death of her son until she returned home. The shock completely prostrated her and she is completely under the care of a physician. The funeral of the Bary boy, who was 12 years old, took place at the home of his parents on lower O'Fallon Avenue Monday afternoon at 2. The burial was in Evergreen Cemetery, back of Newport.
Rev C Emigholz, of the St John P E Church, conducted the services. Callie Sherman, Louis Listerman, Frank Smith, Charles Mayer, members of his Sunday School class acted as pallbearers.
The funeral of Edward Hummel, also aged 12 will take place Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock at the Sacred Heart Church. The burial will be in the new cemetery at St Bernard (Oh) back of Cincinnati. Young Hummel was the only son of Mrs. Anna Hummel, widow of the late Sebastian Hummel, of Foote Avenue, Bellevue.
A peculiar coincident connected with the unfortunate affair is the fact that just five weeks ago Fred Mescher Jr. an uncle of the young Bary was struck by the same train and killed at Huntington W Va. He had left the U S Navy and was making his way to his home in Bellevue at the time of the accident.